Phase 3 Complexity

Short Classes for School Year 2000-2001 at TSBVI

This article describes the short classes offered at TSBVI during the coming school year. Short classes are three to five daysin length. They provide intensive instruction on a very specific skill related to vision impairment. At this time, short classes are for students functioning at or near grade level. Referrals should be made through the local school district, so if you see a class that would be good for your child, talk to your VI teacher or special education director. Your child can participate in one or more programs during the school year. Students in five-day classes should bring their homework with them to complete during our supervised daily study hall.

Provides opportunity for professional collaboration regarding the individual needs of students

Short Time Away From Home

Students bring local assignments (homework) to complete during tutored study halls

All students return to local school at end of short program

Participation in special programs is not a change in placement

Students are not counted absent from their local schools

LEAs support transportation costs

A Typical Day

During the school day, students focus on class content related to their IEP objectives. After school, they participate in Independent Living and Recreation/Leisure activities with other visually impaired students in TSBVI's carefully supervised residential setting. Tutored Study Halls are provided for week-long classes, during both the school and residential shifts, for students to work on assignments they bring with them from their local classes. Study Hall helps them keep up with classwork missed while at TSBVI. Secondary students attending the special classes also participate in a Teen Life class facilitated by a social worker, designed to let students share experiences with one another.

About Short Programs

There is growing national recognition that present educational models for serving visually impaired students may be incomplete. In particular, many students can succeed in their local schools if they receive a short, intensive instructional boost in certain disability-specific areas. These students do not need long-term services in a special classroom or school. But they can need intensive support during critical periods, which may be difficult to provide in the local school because of competing needs and limited resources. Residential schools for the visually impaired have the multidisciplinary expertise in the area of vision services to provide short, intensive classes for these students. The rationale for these programs is that a short time away from the classroom at present will result in improved overall learning in the long run, because the students will be better able to benefit from future instruction.

During the 1999-2000 school year, TSBVI began offering a new kind of service delivery model: short-term programs. Classes were provided for academic-level students in the areas of Independent Living Skills and Technology, both fully attended and highly successful. This year we will expand our offerings significantly, with many short classes being offered throughout the school year. We will continue to offer the special classes. In addition we will offer a week of one-on-one intensive instruction in any disability-specific IEP objective(s) jointly selected by the LEA and TSBVI.

How to Register

Registration for short classes begins by contacting a TSBVI Special Programs' staff member (see contacts below). At that time, we will talk together about the student and the program. If there is a mutual decision to continue the process, formal registration procedures will be described and initiated. Students must apply for any short class no later than 8 weeks before the program begins. In order to provide good ratios class sizes are limited. Eligible students will be admitted in the order in which they apply.

More Information

If you work with a student who may benefit from any of these programs, or if you would like to share or receive additional information, please contact:

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